Gangsters strike it rich in real estate business

Gangsters strike it rich in real estate business
The Hindu

THE HECTIC economic activity witnessed in Bangalore during the last decade has changed the very face of the city's underworld and created new sources of income for gangsters.

Though income from traditional sources such as adulterated oil trade and extortion racket still continue to flow, the gangsters are now making huge money from real estate and cable TV businesses, and financing and recovery of loans.

The police say that many gangsters, including those who were active in the underworld during the eighties and are now "reformed," are controlling the real estate, cable TV, and finance mafias.

The fight among the gangsters to establish their hold over these businesses was one of the reasons for the recent murder of the alleged underworld operator, Rajendra alias Bekkinakannu Rajendra, the police say.

The "finance mafia," which lends money at exorbitant rate of interest, commonly called "metre baddi," has been using illegal means and muscle power to recover loans.

According to the police, the finance mafia is slowly gaining control over the film industry too.

Though the police admit that gangsters are lending money at high rates of interest and coercing the borrowers, most of whom are traders, they express helplessness in checking the menace.

"Unless the victims lodge complaints, we cannot take action. We hardly receive complaints on this count," says a senior official. The murky financing trade has resulted in gang rivalries and even led to more than a dozen murders and assaults in the last few years.

The vehicle financing firms, which have mushroomed all over the city, are lending loans even without ascertaining the borrower's income and ability to repay the loans.

Finding it difficult to recover the loans, many firms and banks have been taking the help of musclemen.

Many of these firms have appointed gangsters as "seizing officers" or "recovery agents" to get the loans recovered.

These "officers" forcibly seize the vehicles from the debtors. On many occasions, those who have borrowed loans are even threatened of dire consequences. The companies pay Rs.1,000 to Rs.2,000 for each vehicle seized by the recovery agents, the police say.

Many private banks, which have issued credit cards, are also engaging the services of gangsters to recover the dues. Complaints have been lodged with the police against a few banks in this regard.

The cable TV business, which runs into crores of rupees, is also reportedly controlled by underworld elements.

According to the police, the supporters of Bekkinakannu Rajendra and Gedde Nagaraj, who is accused of masterminding Rajendra's murder, had recently clashed over the cable TV business in the Devaiah Park area.

Some time ago, Kalapattar and Mani Bharathi, who the police say were active players in the underworld during the eighties and early nineties, attacked a cable TV operator in Malleswaram following a dispute over the cable TV business.

Some police officials who had earlier worked in the Anti-Rowdy Squad are of the view that the underworld, which had remained dormant for some years, may get revived if the cable TV, finance, and real estate mafia is not curbed.